Continual improvement and measurement

The guiding principles and governance give direction, but organizations also need a repeatable way to get better over time. ITIL provides one: the continual improvement model, a structured sequence of questions that takes any improvement from vision to lasting change. This lesson explains the model step by step, introduces the continual improvement register for capturing and prioritizing ideas, and shows how to measure improvement with baselines, targets, critical success factors and key performance indicators. Worked examples cover baseline-to-target arithmetic and two measures that matter to almost every IT organization: change success rate and mean time to restore service.

Continual improvement in ITIL

Continual improvement is a recurring organizational activity performed at all levels to ensure that an organization's performance continually meets stakeholders' expectations. ITIL treats it in three ways: as a component of the service value system (covered in ITIL-130), as a general management practice, and through the continual improvement model described here. Improvement is everyone's responsibility, though many organizations also have a small team that coordinates it, supports others and maintains the register.

The continual improvement model in this lesson comes from ITIL 4, where it is described in detail. ITIL (Version 5) keeps continual improvement central and keeps the seven guiding principles unchanged; check your exam syllabus for the exact way your edition presents the model.

The seven steps of the model

The model is a sequence of seven questions. It can be applied to a small improvement, such as a change to one knowledge article, or to a major organizational transformation.

• What is the vision? Understand the organization's vision and objectives, and how this improvement supports them.
• Where are we now? Assess the current state objectively, with a measured baseline (lesson 3).
• Where do we want to be? Define the target state with measurable objectives, based on the gap between vision and current state.
• How do we get there? Plan the improvement, often as a series of iterations.
• Take action: carry out the plan, measuring progress and managing risks along the way.
• Did we get there? Check whether the objectives were achieved and the expected value realized.
• How do we keep the momentum going? Embed the change, communicate success and identify the next improvement.

Observe how the steps reflect the guiding principles. "Where are we now?" is start where you are. "How do we get there?" and "Take action" usually progress iteratively with feedback. "Did we get there?" provides the feedback. The whole model starts from the vision, which is focus on value at the organizational level.

The continual improvement register

Improvement ideas come from everywhere: incident reviews, customer complaints, staff suggestions, audits, supplier meetings and monitoring data. Without a place to record them, good ideas are lost and effort is spread across too many initiatives. The continual improvement register (CIR) is a database or structured document that tracks and manages improvement ideas from identification to final action.

A typical register entry records the idea, who raised it, the date, the expected benefit, the estimated effort, its priority, the owner, its status and the result once complete. Organizations may keep several registers at different levels (for a team, a value stream or the whole organization), linked so ideas can move to the right level.

Baselines and targets

"Where are we now?" and "Where do we want to be?" both need numbers. A baseline is the measured starting point; a target is the measured goal. The gap between them defines the improvement, and progress can be expressed as the share of the gap closed.

The share of the gap closed is \( \dfrac{\text{baseline} - \text{current}}{\text{baseline} - \text{target}} \times 100\% \) for measures where lower is better, such as resolution time.

Targets should be realistic and linked to value. A target set without a baseline is a guess, and a target that cannot be influenced by the people responsible for it is a source of frustration rather than improvement.

Critical success factors and key performance indicators

Measurement in ITIL is often structured around critical success factors (CSFs) and key performance indicators (KPIs). A CSF is a necessary precondition for achieving intended results: something that must go well. A KPI is an important metric used to evaluate success in meeting an objective. Each CSF is usually supported by a small number of KPIs.

Good KPIs are relevant to the objective, measurable from reliable data, understandable by the people who use them, and few in number. Organizations that track dozens of KPIs often learn little from any of them.

Change success rate

Change success rate is the share of changes implemented without causing an incident, needing remediation or being rolled back. It is one of four key measures used in DevOps research, alongside deployment frequency, lead time for changes and time to restore service. Its complement, the change failure rate, is often reported instead.

Mean time to restore service

Mean time to restore service (MTTR, sometimes called mean time to recover) is the average time from the start of a service interruption to its restoration. It reflects how well detection, diagnosis and recovery work together, which makes it a holistic measure (lesson 6). Because averages can hide outliers, many organizations also report the share of incidents restored within a target time.

Did we get there, and keeping momentum

The sixth step checks results honestly. If the target was not reached, the organization asks why and decides whether to continue, adjust or stop. Partial success is common and still valuable. The seventh step, keeping momentum, is often neglected. Improvements fade if new ways of working are not embedded through training, documentation, updated measures and recognition. Communicating results, including what did not work, builds support for the next improvement and feeds the register with new ideas.

Running an improvement review

Many organizations hold a regular improvement review, monthly or quarterly, to keep the model and the register alive. A typical agenda covers five items: new ideas added to the register since the last review and their initial scores; progress on improvements in progress against their targets; results of completed improvements, including those that did not succeed; changes to priorities in the light of new objectives or risks; and decisions on which ideas to start next, given the capacity available.

Keeping the review short and focused on decisions matters more than its format. A review that only lists activity soon becomes a ritual. A review that decides what to start, continue, adjust or stop, and records why, keeps improvement connected to value and gives the governing body confidence that improvement effort is well directed.

Key point to remember

Improvement without measurement is guesswork, and measurement without improvement is bookkeeping. The model, the register and a small set of well-chosen measures together turn good intentions into demonstrable progress.